BIN11:Day Three

Another really constructive day today- we're making real progress already this season. In Trench 1, the most important development was the identification of a new stretch of wall that lies to the east of the barrack block. Pleasingly, this appears to line up with another stretch of wall which has emerged due to the weathering of a previously excavated area. This wall seems to run parallel to the existing structure. I just wonder whether we've actually got a second tier of rooms with the eastern wall of our current structure actually being a central spine wall to a much wider building. This would make our barrack much more like the kind of cavalry barracks known elsewhere on the wall, such as at Wallsend. It is possible that the western half survived better as it was subsequently re-used in the sub-Roman period, whereas the eastern section fell into disuse. This is still only a hypothesis, but it would explain why our barrack structure appeared so idiosyncratically narrow. Elsewhere in this trench, the big pit still looks like its bottoming out, but intriguingly, we may have another similar feature almost immediately adjacent it. We are also working hard to define the precise stratigraphy of the second, smaller building- does it lie over a patch of cobbles that might be a Roman road surface or are they just part of its foundations?

In Trench 2, the post-medieval ditch is all but completely excavated. This has revealed a number of pieces of wall in section. This, combined with the realisation that a large west-east aligned pit excavated last year was in fact a robber trench, has allowed us to confidentally identify a second strip building, lying just to the north of our existing one. It appears to house the large oven/kiln structure. We've also made great progress in locating the street frontage. We've more or less got the front of the strip buildings and areas of large flagstone paving, which is appearing from beneath later road surfaces. There are still lots of questions though; is there another building between our new strip building and the large structure at the north of the trench? - there appears to be enough room. Also, what is happening in the southern edge of our trench? - more structures or are we too close to the fort ditch?

BIN11: Day Two

Getting into the swing of things now- the students know their way round and are able to get on well with their work. We got lots of work done today even though we had repeated showers of rain over the day. In Trench 1, we've been working well on defining the features to the west of the barrack. On the smaller building, we're really starting to get some better definition, as we continue to carefully pick away at the edges of the walls. We've now got a really clearly defined doorway, complete with a socket hole marking the position of the door (apparently we'd found this at the end of last year, but I must have missed it). Also more work on the big pit, which looks like it might be bottoming out. In Trench 2, we've nearly finished emptying out the 18th century ditch- we've been able to pick up at least one probable wall line, as the ditch gives a cross-section of the Roman layers it cuts through. There has also been splendid progress on the road, with a new, and well-defined, road surface being uncovered in several places. Plenty of finds, including more jet and fragments of at least two bone pins; the metal detectorists also got a silver denarius from the spoilheap.

Other developments include the succesful construction of our wet-sieving apparatus, which appears to work. This will allow us to carry out more environmental processing on site. Sadly, I left my camera at home, so I'll put a picture up tomorrow.

BIN11: Day One

First day on site in season three (BIN11). We had around 55 Durham 1st year undergraduates out this morning for the first day of their three week field school. Unlike the previous two seasons, we had no new trench to open. This meant that we were able to get going immediately with some serious excavation. In Trench 1, we have a number of key tasks. First, we want to try and get a better understanding of how the shallow pits containing evidence for substantial butchery which lie on the west side of the main building relate to the cobbled surfaces on the other side. This means we are putting a lot of effort on to defining the pits (and other possible features) a bit more clearly. We are also finally trying to get a better sense of the chronology of our small rectangular building in the south east of the trench. This again involves trying to understand how it relates to the surrounding cobbles, so lots of careful removal of stones to look forward to. On the northern edge of the trench some students were working on the final vestiges of topsoil from the rampart, whilst work also continued in the large pit (still of uncertain date).

In Trench 2, the majority of work was focused in two areas. On Dere Street itself, we are removing a series of sections of road to try and located the underlying Roman street frontage, although we are also leaving substantial balks in place. We also allowed the students to get some experience in digging features removing the remaining fills from the unexcavated sections of the 18th century roadside ditch.

Already the finds are appearing; not surprisingly we've had plenty of bone and pot. We've also already got a number of coins, two small blue glass beads and a fragment of a jet or shale bracelet. All in all, a great start to the season (but lots to do over the coming weeks).

Count down to BIN11

We're nearly there- work starts on site this coming Monday (June 6th) when about 60 eager (?) Durham students will descend upon Binchester for their three-week archaeology fieldschool. The covers are already off the trenches; the site may look a little green (blame the hard winter we've had), but it won't take long before it starts looking like a proper archaeological site again. From Monday I'll resume daily blog posts outlining our progress.

Volunteer at Binchester

Bookings are now being taken for the annual dig at Binchester Roman Fort, which will run from July 4th - August 12th 2011

Further information is available on the 'Archaeology' page of Durham County Council's website, you should be able to access the page via the following link

Please ignore this notification if you have already been in touch with us about signing up for the dig!

Binchester Interim Report

Good news- we've finally completed the interim report from last year's excavations. It is available for download from our website. Lots more news about this year's season coming soon.

Trench 2

Trench 2
Trench 2 (c. 43m by 20m) was a new area of excavation positioned within the vicus to the immediate east of the eastern entrance to the fort, along Dere Street. The trench examines the northern side of Dere Street and part of the street frontage. Excavation was preceded by geomagnetic and electrical resistance surveys.

Towards the western end of the trench, a stone rectangular building was present on a north‐south alignment, approximately 4m wide and at least 12m long [23]. To the immediate north of here, elements of a small stone structure were also revealed [24]. Only the top course of the walls of these structures was revealed during this stage of the excavation.

A further stone rectangular structure was partially recorded towards the eastern end of the trench [25]. An ancillary building had been constructed onto the southern side of this [26]. A partially‐robbed wall [27] also ran along the eastern section of the excavation, the eastern face of which was obscured by the section. The lower courses of these structures were obscured by a thick dark deposit over the northeastern part of the trench, and later surfaces and rubble to the south. However, excavation of a later ditch cutting through the western wall of structure 25 revealed at least five courses surviving (0.6mhigh). Breaks in the upper course of the southern wall of structure 25 and the western wall of structure 26 may be indicative of the base of the windows. Plaster survives in situ on the wall faces of structure
26.

Contiguous with the top of these walls, spreading across much of the northern part of the trench, were surfaces comprising various elements, including cobbles, paving slabs, mortar and rubble. These may be indicative of the use of the area at this level, perhaps in conjunction with several stone‐lined pits and sunken areas, two of which are shown on the plan. These features include flat slabs in their construction, and are similar to those identified in Trench 1. Over these surfaces and covering much of the northern part of the trench was a dark deposit of soil in which large quantities of animal bone, including significant quantities of cattle skulls, was present – as in Trench 1.

Across the southern part of the trench road surfaces were present, comprising cobbles and gravels, reflecting different surfacing episodes. These were over the line of Dere Street and are likely to reflect a later use of the street as a surface in the post‐medieval period. This was demarcated on the northern side by a smaller sunken track, curving across the trench, in which wheel ruts were visible. Parallel with the line of Dere Street and further to the north, a ditch ran across the trench. The northern edge of the trench cut into the edge of a soil bank running parallel with this ditch. It is likely that all these features relate to the medieval and post‐medieval landscaping of the area, the bank marking the edge of the ploughed area to the north. Other features in the trench currently under investigation may also relate to this phase and to the robbing of earlier stone walls.